Prelude to a Legend
by Jordiscy
Summary: Link's mother delivers him to Kokiri Forest


A deafening roar filled her pointed ears alongside the wild and screaming cries of the child in her arms. She tried desperately to ignore the throbbing pain in her side and concentrate on finding any safety, if there was any to be found, in the field ablaze. The fire engulfed the trees, the bushes, and the grass, creating smoke impossible to see through and making it impossible to breathe.  
  
The heat caused for sweat to pour from her face and drip from her chin. The tunic that wrapped the child and once was saturated with cool lake water was now completely dry. The baby boy thrashed his little clenched fists around wildly, beating on his mother's breast as he wailed in discomfort.  
  
She knew she was running in circles. She could not find an exit from the raging fire that claimed all of Hyrule Field. But still she pressed on. Tears streamed down her cheeks and mingled with the sweat that stung her eyes. She knew she had to find a place for her son-a place for his safety. With every step she took, a wave of pain shot through her side where blood oozed out. A stone caught her foot and she lost her balance. Both she and her son tumbled to the ground and found themselves sprawled among the black, singed grass. The pain in her side was unbearable. Her son was out of her reach – he lay helpless as he screamed and his swaddling clothes fell off his pink, naked body. She coughed as the black smoke clouded her lungs, she wiped her face with her wrist only to sting her eyes with more salty sweat and leave a black streak across her face. The hem of her skirt caught fire and she frantically kicked it out before the tongues could engulf her and leave her baby boy an orphan so soon.  
  
The emotions were too great; she lost her determination and will to press on. She brought her knees to her breast and sobbed quietly to herself in a fetal position. Her eyes closed tightly and the tears were squeezed from her eyelids. Rocking back and forth, she detached herself from her hellish surroundings--pushing out the deafening roar and the blinding golden light until only the sound of her wailing son was what she heard.  
  
When she opened her eyes, she no longer saw the reds and oranges of hell surrounding her. Instead, her setting was of a clouded white. There was an eerie silence there, but she did not worry. She felt a peace within her soul, a peace she could not explain. She found herself in a standing position with her son quietly napping in her arms. She just had to smile as the tiny muscles worked themselves in circular patterns in his chubby cheeks as he sucked his cute little thumb.  
  
I guess this is heaven, she thought to herself. Glancing around once again, she saw nothing of any particular interest – just the cloudy white all around. Wait. There was something. There. In the distance directly in front of the confused mother. It seemed to be a green glow attempting to move out of the white clouds. As the mother squinted at it to try and figure out what it was, she eventually figured out that it was gradually getting closer to her.  
  
And gradually getting faster.  
  
As it got closer to her, the hazy light got bigger and brighter. Faster and faster it came, until it seemed to be shooting at the mother-and-son pair. It moved so fast, the mother just had to scream and turn away in fear, tucking her baby boy deeper into the folds of her dress.  
  
She knew that by now, the fearsome light had to be upon her. It had to be performing whatever gruesome task it did to the dead as they entered upon this realm. Yet, feeling no pain, she was bewildered. Cautiously, she relaxed her clamped eyelids and glanced out of the corner of her eye.  
  
What she saw was amazing.  
  
The green light was bright as ever, first blinding the mother as she tried to gaze upon it. Her eyes soon came to focus, and through the green aura she could just make out the figure of a woman. This woman was shaped perfectly with the most grace the mother had ever seen. Curly hair streamed down the back of the beautiful being in graceful locks, floating the slightest bit as if it were in a pool of purest water. By squinting, the mother could make out a few facial features; eyes that shone out with a glow of green that matched the surrounding halo perfectly.  
  
"Don't be afraid, my child." The voice echoed as warm silver bells in the distance with feminine timbre. The sound of it just made the mother feel a rush of peace flow through her soul. "There is hope yet. A path will make it's way before you. All you need to do is to have an open heart and wide eyes to look for it."  
  
A revelation suddenly came to the woman. She was standing before the goddess Farore herself. One of the Creating Goddesses. But how could such a beautiful and heavenly being take pity upon a simple woman? This was unheard of.  
  
"You carry with you a precious person. He will bring Peace to Hyrule in the time to come. It is your duty to see that he lives to see that time."  
  
She felt the very presence of comfort wrap around her as a soft, warm, thick blanket. Love seemed to become tangible and weave in and out of her locks of golden hair. A warm breeze softly brushed past the mother's face as the green goddess leaned forward and reached out her graceful hand to cup her face.  
  
As Farore's lips met the mother's forehead in a sweet and gentle kiss, the mother's side exploded with pain. Her face contorted as she screamed in sudden agony, pressing her eyes shut as the tears started streaming yet again.  
  
On the other side of the dark, cylindrical corridor, the small, elf-like stood, unsure of the events to come. The roars of wildfire echoed through the magical doorway to the outside world, disturbing the tranquil serenity of the wooded land in which she lived. Her green, child-like eyes were filled with worry and concern. Despite her apparent youth, the wisdom she carried knew that the world around her people's forest was on the verge of destruction. Praise Nayru that the Deku Tree was there to protect the fertile forest from the fires of anarchy and destruction.  
  
Strands of her wavy, green, bobbed hair fell from her pointed ears and into her eyes as she heard faint footstep echo through the hollowed throng that served as the passage between the forest and the filed. The steps were irregular, and the elf-like girl could sense the disparity with every stumble.  
  
Standing on the wooden bridge suspended between the inhabited forest and the field ablaze, the child-like figure witnessed the darkness part before her. Tattered waves of fabric enveloped the exhausted being that stumbled through the opening and fall to sprawl out on the planks before her. Long, curly, blonde hair cascaded out of the bonnet sloppily tied to her head, some strands singed black. Brown smudges tainted the fair complexion of the fatigued lady. Her labored gasps for clean air echoed against the thick tree trunks riddled throughout the Lost Woods, and the sound haunted the young elf as it beat against her eardrums. The bundle clutched to the woman's side uncovered itself as the child inside squirmed to reach the fresh air surrounded him.  
  
The elf-girl was paralyzed in surprise. She let out a short gasp as the infant revealed himself with tufts of blonde hair in disarray. Despite the chaos surrounding the infant, the baby boy did not scream or wail about. He merely squirmed in efforts to remove the burnt layers off his skin glistening with sweat. As the golden-haired woman shifted to a sitting position, the babe soon came to rest, clinging to the woman's blouse, closing his eyes to exit this realm for the time being.  
  
The woman brushed some stray strands of matching golden hair out of the sleeping child's eyes, attempting to hum a soothing melody, but her lungs were still filled with smoke. All she could do was hiss a raspy measure before she gave up trying to console the child in her arms.  
  
The elf-girl just stood upon the bridge, dumbfounded. Her eyes were wide with dread, for she knew what was to happen next. The golden woman looked up at the small elf with eyes full of pain and pleading. They communicated a silent message through the ever mysterious eyes – the organs that are able to hold life's mystery itself and shout it out in a manner not befitting to words.  
  
Take care of him.  
  
That is the message her eyes desperately cried out to the young elf standing before her. In one moment that lingered for what seemed to be an eternity, the golden woman gazed lovingly down at her peacefully-sleeping son and communicated one last message through her tired pair of eyes.  
  
I love you.  
  
This sight would burn itself into the living memory of the small girl still paralyzed. It would haunt her dreams for the years to come and for the rest of eternity.  
  
Then, the ever-communicating wonders of Hylian anatomy went silent. They gracefully hid themselves behind scorched lids before freeing one last tear, a tear that slowly made its way down the smooth cheek and ran down the now-cold neck, smearing the patches of dirt and soot along its path.  
  
A matching tear ran down the cheek of the young girl clad in green as she saw the woman's soul drift from a tired body, wreathed in a golden and shining light, and ascend to the heavens. Her golden hair swayed with gracefulness in such a way her physical body could never encompass, showing that her face was always turned downward, her eyes still gazing upon her young babe quietly snoring. The small girl in green watched in awe as the now-angelic being departed from this realm for the rest of eternity . . .  
  
Never to return to her sleeping babe.  
  
Only when the angelic light was gone did the baby wake and notice that something was wrong. He communicated this by the usual method of those at his stage of life – by screaming his head off.  
  
The elfin girl was still rendered speechless as he beat upon the breast of his mother's corpse in futile attempts to get her to awaken and comfort him. But the breast that he beat upon no longer moved rhythmically in breathing, and the child-like figure knew this. All she could do was to stand there in horror of the scene before her gawking like an idiot in silence. She was so wrought in a plethora of emotions she could not rationalize what to do next.  
  
In her many years of experience and abundance of wisdom, she never witnessed anything to this nature. All her life, she was protected in a Forest of Life, never exposed to the ideas of death and destruction. All she knew was life. Always life. There could be nothing else.  
  
Or so she thought.  
  
A baritone voice then exploded in her head – a voice so familiar to her, but it still startled the living heartfruits out of her. Her gasp of surprise echoed through the forest as a high-pitched squeak as she jumped, soon to frantically grab for the rope rails of the bridge she was standing upon for support.  
  
"Do as the woman requested."  
  
The girl paused a moment to let these words sink in, then realizing the meaning behind them, she nodded in acknowledgement. Cautiously, she approached the little child and bent down to get a closer look at him. Reaching out a small hand, she gently petted the matted, blonde hair upon the babe's head. At the touch of her soft skin, the child stopped crying and gazed upward. Tiny cooing sounds escaped his mouth and the elf-girl just ahead to smile at how cute he looked. He blinked a few times, making his bright-blue eyes all the more noticeable. Those beautiful blue eyes gazed into a pair of green eyes and beamed with a radiance the girl could make no comparison to. The child smiled as she took him into her arms and carried him through the cool air and into the enchanted forest beyond. 


End file.
